In 50,000 acres of remote Scottish mountains and moor sits Dorcha Hall: a former hunting lodge nestling amongst ancient forests, on the shores of the enigmatic ‘Black Loch’.

At night, lights glow from within, smoke curls from its chimneys, and in the forgiving murk of the gloaming, it looks magical. In daylight, its mouldering plasterwork and failing plumbing present a less romantic reality.

#TheBeastsoftheBlackLoch X/Twitter @gaymarrisauthor  #RandomThingsTours  @annecater  @RandomTTours 
Instagram @gaymarrisauthor @bedfordsq.publishers @randomthingtours #blogtour

Dr Ava Dickens has come to Dorcha to visit her godson, Alastair – a young man whose parents’ sudden death has taken him from a quiet life in academia to owning Loch Dorcha. He and his very new wife are convinced the only way to make the estate work is to run the Hall as a hotel. But Ava is a rigorous scientist, her specialty animal behaviour, and she is by no means certain that the evidence is indicative of a successful outcome.

When one of the hotel guests is found dead in his bed, having gulped down poisonous insect repellent rather than the whisky sitting next to it, Ava’s knowledge of the female Culicoides impunctatus – aka the Highland midge – leads her to doubt that it was an accident. And worse is to come…

My Review

All the references to insect species and their various attributes could have been really boring, but they weren’t. They made the book for me. It was often hilarious.

‘Do you know how many sensory receptors a female midge has on her antennae?’ Dr Ava Wickens asks Professor Wick. ‘Go on guess.’
‘Surprisingly, no, doctor.’
‘Have a guess.’
‘Ten.’
‘More.’
‘A million.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous! The answer is approximately two hundred and forty-one.’

However, I did guess the murderer quite early on even if, like Wick I didn’t know anything about the female Culicoides impunctatus – aka the Highland midge – and I was glad that I was right. Ghastly person!

Ava is like a younger version of Miss Marple, unmarried, no children, and the tenacious grip of a Jack Russell with a frisbee. She’s not going let it go. She bounces her ideas off Wick.

Ava’s godson Alistair has been married to Fiona for barely a year. His parents both died in a car crash. His father was known to be a drunk and no foul play was ever considered. But then Mr Baumgarten is found poisoned in his bed, and the police say he mistook the insect repellent for his whisky, but Ava is not so sure they are right.

My only criticism of the book is that it is rather long, but so many novels are these days. Once I started reading for its own sake rather than getting to the denouement, I really enjoyed it.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #BeastsoftheBlackLoch #blogtour

About the Author

Dr. Gay Marris is a retired research scientist. Her career focused on insect ecology, parasites and honey bee health. Her first novel, The Curtain Twitcher’s Book of Murder, set in the suburbs of the deceptively dangerous suburbs of 1960s London, where she grew up and was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey First Novel Prize.

Her second novel, The Beasts of the Black Loch, is the first in the Natural History of Murder series. Gay now lives in York with her husband, a cat and a tortoise.